As integrated circuits increase in size and complexity, dissipating the increasing amount of heat being generated by these integrated circuits is critical. As the high end for thermal solutions increases, so does the size of the cooling systems used to provide such thermal solutions. Unfortunately, larger cooling systems include more mass. Where a thermal interface is necessary, mounting such a cooling system becomes more challenging and often leads to damage of the cooling system or surrounding components, including the integrated circuit to be cooled.
Further, depending on the mounting configuration, the mass can act as a lever arm on the system, leading to partial or total separation of the heat collector and the integrated circuit at the thermal interface. Such conditions of non-uniformity at the thermal interface lead to degradation in the performance of the cooling system.
Certain applications provide only a limited space for cooling systems. In such space constrained applications, multiple component cooling systems are often integrated to minimize space. Such integrated cooling systems again result in higher mass, which when mounted to a heat source, can suffer from the same difficulties and problems described above.
There is therefore a need for a more effective mounting or joining mechanism to provide a thermal interface between a cooling system and a heat source.